England U21 3-0 Latvia U21

Demarai Gray (centre) opened the scoring with a powerful strike

England Under-21s secured a first win of their 2019 European Under-21 Championship qualifying campaign as they dominated Latvia at Bournemouth.

Leicester City's Demarai Gray opened the scoring with a powerful finish from the corner of the area, capping a flowing move by Aidy Boothroyd's side.

Swansea loanee Tammy Abraham pounced on a heavy touch in the visitors' midfield to convert a second from 18 yards.

Kasey Palmer made it 3-0 after keeper Vladislavs Kurakins fumbled a cross.

Palmer, who like Abraham has been loaned out by Chelsea for the season - in his case to Huddersfield - only needed a simple finish for his first goal at this level.

'World Cup win underpins success'

Boothroyd handed full debuts to another Chelsea player - Fikayo Tomori, who is on loan at Hull - as well as Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold and Sheyi Ojo, Tottenham's Kyle Walker-Peters and Everton's Tom Davies.

His side had been held to a draw by the Netherlands in their opening Group 4 fixture on Friday but back on home soil, they rarely looked threatened and dominated with 71% of possession at Vitality Stadium, which was hosting its first Under-21 international.

Afterwards, the former Watford boss said his side's unbeaten start to the campaign owed a little to England's win at the summer's Under-20 World Cup, with some of those players having now stepped up to Under-21 level.

"When you're winning things, your peers, whether they are younger or older, it puts pressure on and makes it better for all of us," said Boothroyd.

"Once one's done it, confidence breeds more, providing you don't get complacent. It's a really good thing.

"You can see it in the way they perform. They're not bothered playing in front of crowds and a bit of that is because some of them are playing in the Premier League for first teams.

"They've got a lot of belief in themselves, and they also know they have a long way to go so we can be as good as a team as we want to be."

Gray leads by example

Both Gray and Abraham were substitutes for the draw with the Netherlands but their strikes put England two up by half-time.

While Abraham and Palmer's finishes owed plenty to goalkeeping error, winger Gray's angled shot was of superb quality and took him to five goals in 13 appearances at Under-21 level.

"At one point I thought he was going to play every single position, he was running around that much," added Boothroyd. "He has enormous amounts of ability."

England now sit second behind Ukraine, who beat Andorra 6-0 earlier on Tuesday. Only the nine group winners will qualify automatically, with the four best-placed runners-up playing off for the final two places.

Those 11 teams will join co-hosts Italy, who are staging the 2019 tournament along with San Marino.

England next face Scotland - who beat the Netherlands 2-0 on Tuesday - on 5 October.